A Farewell to Arms | Characters

The central characters are the star-crossed lovers, Catherine Barkley and Frederic Henry. Critics sometimes accuse Catherine as being an impossibly romantic character, a creation utterly unconvincing as a human personality. Many readers, however, find her quite credible and convincing. In any case, she is the necessary priestess of love in the novel's scheme of things. She is also a nurse whose function is to nourish and to sustain the wounded. Most importantly, she is the lover, the character who embodies the exemplar-priest's vision: "When you love you wish to do things for. You wish to...

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